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CHICAGO (MarketWatch)—Mortgage rates used to be the least of home buyers’ worries. But a recent interest-rate spike is turning the factor of rising home-loan rates into a widespread concern.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.37% for the week ending July 18, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates. That’s down slightly from the average a week earlier, but up more than a percentage point from early May.

While it isn’t yet known how the rate increase may have affected overall housing sales, the volatility has been a reality check, a reminder to would-be buyers that low rates won’t be around forever, said Jessica Edwards, Coldwell Banker Real Estate consumer specialist.

It’s causing others to back out of deals in progress.

For example, two of Ellie McIntire’s short-sale transactions have fallen through the past couple of weeks. The Baltimore-area real-estate agent, who specializes in short sales, said that rising rates are to blame.

In a short sale, the sellers owe more on the mortgage than the home is currently worth, and their lender agrees to accept less than the full mortgage payoff at closing. In McIntire’s cases, after waiting for at least 60 days for the banks to accept or reject their offers, the buyers decided they couldn’t afford to wait any longer and pulled out of the process, she said. Without an agreed upon contract price, they couldn’t secure financing.

“They had gotten to the 4% [30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate] mark and decided they wanted to find a home that was a standard transaction,” not a short sale, McIntire said. With a traditional sale, the home seller approves the offer, not the bank, so the process can move more quickly.

Forty-one percent of home buyers said rising mortgage rates were their No. 1 worry, according to a survey of more than 2,000 people conducted in late June by real-estate website Trulia.

Of the respondents who plan to buy a home someday, 13% said a mortgage rate of 4% would be too high and 20% said a mortgage rate of 5% was their limit. Another 22% said rates would have to reach 6% to discourage them from buying a home

What a higher rate means for your bottom line

The monthly payment on a $200,000, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.35% (what it averaged in early May) is $881. When the rate goes up to 4.46% (what it averaged in late June), the monthly payment is $1,009, according to calculations from Trulia’s chief economist, Jed Kolko.

Or consider this rule of thumb: For every $100,000 borrowed, a percentage point increase in rate means an additional $83 a month in your monthly mortgage payment, said David Zugheri, executive vice president at Envoy Mortgage in Houston.

Is that enough to stop someone from buying a home? Maybe not. But it will likely make someone stutter and reconsider the purchase, he said.